Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
January 6, 2020 · 23:44

Windy Night

The winds were back last night, at least at our house.

Those are the wind chimes that were banging away, with the trees in the background swaying and swishing and whooshing and generally making lots of very loud, spooky noises.

What’s really weird is that a couple of folks at work who live within a couple of miles of here kept getting “HIGH WIND!” alerts on their phone, but it was calm as could be. Meanwhile, when I took out the trash tonight I found that the BBQ has been wandering again. It’s sitting ten feet away from where it was parked, and the big, heavy cover that was on it was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe I’ll borrow a set of chocks from the hangar. If they’re designed to keep a B-52 or C-46 from wandering, maybe they can keep the BBQ in place.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Photography, Weather

January 5, 2020 · 23:18

What’s The Over/Under?

Sending text messages to friends and family in the last week, we found the Easter Egg in the iOS Messages app. (It wasn’t hard, this was not an achievement of spectacular investigative skills.)

When you type “Happy New Year,” you get:

It’s about a five-second fireworks display. Cute! I love fireworks!

It apparently doesn’t trigger if you’re just got the “Happy New Years” phrase embedded in a longer text. My guess was that it would work for a day or two around January 1st, but I was surprised to see it still working today.

So, what’s the over/under on when it stops working? January 10th? January 31st? March 31st? July? Thanksgiving?

I’ll be testing. Feel free to help. Text “Happy New Year!” to me every few days. Yeah, the Apple and Google and Facebook and Cambridge Analytica systems that are watching every keystroke will think that we’re weird as hell – but that’s probably a good thing.

(It’s also not inaccurate.)

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Filed under Paul

January 4, 2020 · 23:20

Cirrus, Moon, Twin Contrails

It’s a simple, common sight.

The moon seen through a broken, high layer of cirrus clouds, the sky being split by two horizon-to-horizon contrails.

Yet how many of us ever stop to admire the beauty of the sight? The subtle, infinite variations of blue and white…

The news is shit, other aspects of our lives may or may not have us ready to run screaming. But with this view, for a couple of minutes at least, perhaps we can push the horror to the side.

Those meditation apps with the weird Australian guys might help also.

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Filed under Photography, Weather

January 3, 2020 · 23:43

Art Or Not Art?

There’s a Twitter bot account called something like “Art_Or_Not_Art” and when you see something really weird you can hashtag “Art Or Not Art” (or something, not exactly sure how it gets triggered) and the bot will reply with either “Art” or “Not Art.”

Although, in truth, I think it simply replies with “Art.” I have ***NEVER*** seen it reply with “Not Art.”

This might be the day.

Art? Or Not Art?

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Filed under Art

January 2, 2020 · 23:32

Chaos 2020

You know that infamous rant by Jim Mora, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, when some reporter asked him about making the playoffs?

In that same squeaky voice (with pretty much the same graying hair, pretty much the same sagging chin, and pretty much the same sense of frustration) imagine me saying, “Routine?! You want to talk about ‘routine’?”

What’s up with this 2 days off, 1 day on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 2 days off, 1 day on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 2 days off shit?

Granted, it’s better than not having any of those extra days off in there. But when you put that on top of the year and the decade changing, I’m having a tough time remembering what day of the week it is, let alone which month or year.

It’s like being on one of those bull riding machine that’s set up for almost 100% chaotic movement, no predictability, no pattern, nothing to do but hold on for dear life.

At least next week will have five work days in a row, which means only one “Monday.” (My god, has it come to this, that I’m grateful for five work days in a row?)

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Paul

January 1, 2020 · 23:38

Hello 2020

Since the sunset was nice enough to grace us again with pinks and oranges…

No sign of Venus behind those pink clouds tonight, but I have faith that it’s there!

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Filed under Photography

December 31, 2019 · 23:54

Goodbye 2019

The final sunset of 2019, the final sunset of the decade.

The colors didn’t suck. I wish the same could be said for the year, at least in the global sense.

The moon was up in the upper left, and Venus could clearly be seen peeking in and out of those cotton-candy clouds. Not sure it can be seen in the picture.

Happy New Year to all – let’s hope 2020 is full of lots of love and laughter. And a lot less of the other stuff that made the late 2010’s suck so badly.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography

December 30, 2019 · 22:40

No Context For You – December 30th

As the end of 2019 (and the end of the decade? a pedantic rant for another day, perhaps) comes barreling at us like a runaway freight train, everyone’s doing those “best of the year” and “best of the decade” lists and on and on…

It’s too much work.

But, I did see one suggestion I liked. Instead of looking forward and making resolutions for 2020, look back to 2019 and see what happened that you never saw coming or never thought would come true.

Good one.

In my case, the answer to that was obvious. Since starting college, I’ve worked at four places and was at one of them for twenty-seven years. Being approached by a recruiter, following through the application, getting involved in the process, getting a new job and leaving the old one was ***HUGE*** for me. And before mid June I wouldn’t have thought it was likely in a million years.

What happened to you this year that came straight out of left field?

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Filed under Paul, Photography

December 29, 2019 · 22:42

Clear & A Million

There was a winter storm earlier last week (another one moving in tonight) and the snow level dropped down to about 3,000 feet. The mountains north of Camarillo go up well above that, so they got fresh snow. But yesterday was cloudless, “clear and a million” in flying parlance, and our P-51 Mustang was out on the ramp…

It would have been a spectacular day to go flying, but this aircraft is still well above my pay grade.

Something to work toward in 2020, even if they’re just baby steps.

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Filed under CAF, Photography

December 28, 2019 · 17:42

Moon & Venus Conjunction

A couple of gems in our sunset tonight. (tl;dr rant as always – if you missed it tonight, they’ll be there tomorrow night, just a little bit further apart, and Monday night a little further apart…)

I’m glad that this parade of winter storms has paused for an evening to let us see it!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space